Ask Lemmy

I started with MMOs back in the MUD days, both on dial up BBSs and (eventually) on university servers. I will always remember the sysop who walked me through signing up for his BBS MUD while I was giving responses like “y” and “go north” because I thought he was just an infocom game and not an actual person. Twelve year old me was so embarrassed that I never went back. If you’re out there, sysop, or if you’re just someone who has tried their best to support online communities despite the best intentions of absolute idiots, I salute you.

I played EverQuest since it came out, stupidly choosing a ranger and studying fletching all very badly because I didn’t know about gaming the game mechanics and had read too many fantasy novels. I played a lot, mostly by myself, and didn’t get too far. I also tried EQ2 when it came out, and when Diablo 2 released I decided to experiment with gaming the trading market.

I was an early WoW adopter. I played through the level caps two or three times. I joined a more serious raiding guild when I hit 60 (instead of my old rpg guild) and cornered the market on cotton a couple of weeks in a row here and there. I eventually fell out of it - end game content turned into feeling like a job, where you had to study and rehearse in order to get past bosses, your loot dropping was like a 1 in 20 chance, and if you screwed up a single person could cause a group wipe. Honestly, it just got boring compared to being a level 8 warlock wandering around.

What is keeping me from trying new ones is that there’s a massive disadvantage in starting an MMO that’s already been going on for years and years. You can fire up Skyrim for the very first time this afternoon, and have the exact same experience (honestly, a much improved one) as if you fired it up on launch day. I can launch Baldur or Disco or Stray and just not have to worry about getting ganked other than what was already intended by the devs. There was a time in EverQuest where another player challenged me to 1v1 and finally talked me into trying it, then proceeded to beat the living shit out of me but then bandage me right before I died. He kept on doing it until I disconnected. As funny as that was in retrospect, it’s also a problem with MMOs in general.

I would love for there to be a new WoW - something that restored the magic of the game when you could solo or group up and both explore the world and feel progress. I’m still waiting.

So what if WoW isn't the same? It's still a good game, and a new one at that. I don't get the apprehension, unless you want to scratch the nostalgia itch, but I think it's a waste of time, although WoW Classic is a thing. FFXIV is also pretty good if you can stomach anime designs and weird Japanese fantasy, personally I find it too unrelatable.

Currently I try to decide between New World and Guild Wars 2. Can't play both but not sure which to pick ....

I was playing to Elder Scrolls but they revamped the interface and since it's horrible.

Star Citizen is my guilty pleasure. Get online with a group of friends and do some missions, emersion style, role play hijinks. The space elevator of death will forever be in our hearts.

Honestly, the only game that’s scratched that old MMO itch for me is Old School Runescape.

But, by and large… it’s not an MMO. Give this video a watch!

• Star Wars Galaxies, A New Hope launched in July and doesn't have any of the BS restrictions in place like SWGEMU does. Play on multiple toons, use of macros and scripts, ultimate fun.

Started festia online and I really like it! But I'm new and I'm lost.

HorizonXI. It's a classic Final Fantasy XI server.

I grew up playing XI and wanted to get back into it, but the retail server is a solo experience these days. Horizon has been incredible to relive my childhood on Horizon, and the community is amazing. It's certainly not for everyone but I'm so glad to have it in my life.

Furcadia

I was playing Wrath Classic when it came but the wow token and GDKPs absolutely killed the experience. Wow itself has had some good changes and announcements lately, it might be worth revisiting that a little to see if you might be interested again.

Another option is Hardcore, which does somewhat feel interesting and old school again.

The only mmo's I ever really spent any significant time with were FFXI (on dial up for most of the time I spent with it so my experience wasn't great) and GW2. not mentioning eve... we dont talk about that..

There was a free MMORPG called Planeshift (I played quite a lot in 2005 or so, it's still around and being actively worked on) that was very elder scrolls inspired, I put a lot of time into in the past too but being a small free amateur project it didn't have a lot of players.

I just don't have the time or motivation to give modern MMOs the attention they really need to make progress, and I was very much a solo player at the time so progress was slow and hard.

I think if I was to pick up a new one it would be FF14, it has a balance of open gameplay and story which a lot of mmos ignore, it seems like a good community but as with all mmos they really dont want you to just drop in a play a couple of hours every second weekend, they want you to get in daily and stick to a routine, which I just cant commit to these days.

Got that itch again recently too and after looking through what's currently popular decided to give EVE Online and Black Desert (on private server) a try

I like open world survival crafting games (loved Valheim) and prefer to play with others so am hoping these will work out

Also played some GW2 few months back for a while and I host a Minetest server for our kiddos where I dabble as well

Idk if Warframe counts as an MMO, but it's the closest thing to an MMO that I play.

The lore is really cool, though it's mostly for the people who care about it as it is really easy to skip/miss.

The community is mostly super friendly and a big part of the game (yk, trading in-game items for in-game currency, clans, etc...).

The PvE of Warframe imo is top notch, fluent movement, satisfying weapons, time or characters, abilities, strategies and weapons to choose from and reach one can be upgraded individually.

The PvP however... It exists and that's all I can say about it, it's kinda just bad and no one plays it.

Idk what RvR means lol.

Oh, and the game is completely free with no forced pay walls and it'll run on pretty much anything.

Though it's not perfect, it's a grind (yk it's a looter shooter) and there is an annoying mechanic of items taking a while to craft